2013年5月9日星期四

Vatican declares Mexican Death Saint blasphemous, might inevitable

With globalization and widespread movements
of populations struggling to maintain their identities within the contexts of
both the old and new societies, changes of religion—including religious
affiliation and religiosity—are inevitable.

Event

Santa
Muerte

The president of the Vatican's Pontifical
Council for Culture, Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, said worshipping Santa Muerte
was a "degeneration of religion".

Cardinal Ravasi spoke at a series of events
for believers and non-believers in Mexico City.

The cult, which reveres death, has been
growing rapidly in Mexico.

It is represented by a cloaked female
skeleton clutching a scythe.

It is particularly popular in areas of
Mexico that have suffered from extreme violence carried out by the country's
drug cartels.

The cult is believed to date back to
colonial times.

It merges indigenous beliefs with the
tradition of venerating saints introduced by Christian missionaries after the
Spanish conquest of Mexico.

Anti-religious

Devotees pray to the saint at home-made
altars and often offer votive candles, fruit and tequila in the hope Santa
Muerte will grant their wishes.

Cardinal Ravasi said the practice was
"anti-religious". "Religion celebrates life, but here you have
death," he said.

"It's not religion just because it's dressed
up like religion; it's a blasphemy against religion", he said.

The cardinal also referred to the fact that
the cult is particularly popular among members of Mexico's drug cartels and
accused "criminals" of invoking it.

Cardinal Ravasi said a country like Mexico,
where more than 70,000 people are estimated to have been killed in drug-related
violence over the past six years, had to send out a clear message to its young
generation.

"The mafia, drug trafficking and
organised crime don't have a religious aspect and have nothing to do with
religion, even if they use the image of Santa Muerte," he said.

There are no reliable figures showing how
many people worship Santa Muerte, but academics studying the subject say more
and more Santa Muerte shrines have been popping up in Mexico and the US, where
the cult is popular with Mexican immigrants.

Last year, police in northern Mexico
arrested eight people in connection with the killing of two boys and a woman in
ritual sacrifices which prosecutors said were linked to the cult of Santa
Muerte.